The Seven Days, or the Old and New Creation By the author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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| 6. | THE SIXTH DAY. Beasts, creeping things, and Man. |
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 | The Seven Days, or the Old and New Creation |  |
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THE SIXTH DAY. Beasts, creeping things, and Man.
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ARGUMENT.
All is now suspense and expectation until Man appears. Creation of cattle after their kinds, and insects. All marked with the effects of our sin. Their affinities with things heavenly and spiritual, shewn in the universal application of them as types; in the Zodiac; in the symbolic figures of the East; in the fables of Æsop; in the Mosaic Law, wherein the creatures surround the Lamb of God. Distinctions between them abolished; the Ark; the Vision of St. Peter. But all stamped with Divine lessons; the dog teaches fidelity; the cloven-foot the symbol of safe-treading; the hind, of walking on high places; chewing the cud, of contemplation; beasts of burden set forth patience; the serpent, wisdom; the dove, innocence; the ant, providing for Heaven; the silkworm, resurrection; the bee, divine anointing of kings; the butterfly, angelic natures. Insect architects are “taught of God;” much more is man for everlasting habitations and “a building of God.”
From other creatures ascent to Man. Man alone able to know his Creator. The Trinity in deliberation: man created in the image of God; image of the Trinity variously explained. Though man be fallen yet still God loves in him His own Image. His dominion over the creatures, in like manner as that over the inner world, forfeited by his own disobedience. On this same day the restoration of man by the death of Christ. The Trinity again revealed in converse. Returning to the image of God man finds his lost dominion, peace and Paradise restored. As beheld in Christ the creatures again are good. The Sixth Day of the world now verging towards its close.
297
MORNING.
I
As when the unnumber'd audience hang their gazeOn opening of some glorious theatre,
Which all its meet accoutrement displays,
The curtain now uplifted, eye and ear
All watching, till the actors shall appear;
So while the stars adorn the encircling skies,
And air and wave their living inmates cheer,
Watchers of Heaven look down with wondering eyes,
Till habitants of earth and Man himself shall rise.
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II
Gradation on gradation all ascendThe silver chain of order; from their deep
And adamantine base first upward tend
Material worlds; and thence to being creep
The vegetable realms their place to keep;
Animal worlds then with their tribes have striven
Of every form and phase, and onward sweep
To Man, to whom the soul divine is given,
Communing with the stars, and face that looks to Heaven;
III
Which still remains, though fallen; still his sightTurns heavenward, and the stars on him look down
With deep mysterious tenderness of night,
And in his darkest wanderings seem to own.
What though of things below thou art the crown,
Thou knowest them by name, and they are thine,—
To some for sorrow is thy service known,
Some frown and rage against thee, some repine;—
As thou thy Maker's yoke so they thy yoke decline.
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IV
That Morn of morns how sweet and musical!At their Creator's voice new Life and Love
Went forth, and purple pinions waved o'er all,—
A mantle as of music from above:
Deep minstrelsies the soul of nature move,
Like universal Pan, whose pipe o'erflows
From fabled haunts of some deep-hidden grove;
So Love in all the stir of being rose,
Yet had within itself its own Divine repose.
V
For like some mighty music, sweet, sublime,There something is that fills the earth and sky,
And in the burst of spring, throughout all time,
Wakens more deep that mystic harmony
Which hidden 'neath all nature seems to lie.
Upborne as by a buoyant underflood
Stilly with multifarious voice they cry,
In solemn accents feebly understood,
'Tis God Who made us all, and God alone is good.
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VI
As when on banks of Ganges, far and nearStillness of death and sylvan horrors brood,
From clouded skies should the bright moon appear,
Or thunders and swift lightning rouse the wood,
What seem'd e'en now but lifeless solitude
Wakes up, and rings with every sight and sound;
So at the Voice Divine Creation stood,
In multifarious forms pour'd forth around,
In the sweet gift of life rejoicing from the ground.
VII
Full-limb'd intelligences walk the earth,What veil mysterious o'er their birth-day lies!
While every clod is bursting into birth;—
As first into new being they arise,
And drink their Maker's boundless charities,
Drink and are glad,—are glad because they live,
Like glittering drops the well of life supplies,
Radiant with joy, because their God doth give,
And upward to the Fount of all their blessings strive.
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VIII
Self-moving forms, by will internal steer'd,By passions oar'd, by chance desire full-sail'd,
Athwart or straight, by breath impulsive spher'd
Within their soul, as new-born life prevail'd,
All powers organic to its service hail'd,
Through all the body with a lightning glance
To motion urged and sound—with power entail'd
To after kinds,—not as the starry dance,
But as the unseen Will gave joyous utterance.
IX
The Lion's kingly brow, the mail'd cuirassOf huge and horn'd Rhinoceros appear'd,
Streak'd Tiger, spotted Pard, and countless pass
Many-form'd tribes, and many-horned herd;
In beauty and in gladness at the Word
They lift their heads, and fill with life the land;
Snake-handed Elephants their bulk uprear'd,
Live towers of arrowy war, and on each hand
The Elk, and Camel-ship to steer o'er desert strand.
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X
The Horse starts at the shade himself had cast;The antler'd head emerges as from sleep,
In semblance of the grove wherein it pass'd;
Wool-bearing tribes range pasturing, white-fleeced Sheep,
And browsing Goat hanging upon the steep,
Soft-eyed Gazelle, huge Giraffe, trunk-like kind,
Light-footed Roe, tall Antelope, with leap
Rebounding and rebounding; graceful Hind,
Fair as acacia-tree, elastic as the wind.
XI
Nor less in harmless troops unnumber'd play'dThe smaller kinds on lawn, or grove, or hill,
Pair'd or in flock, or solitary stray'd;
The Coney by his rock sports, eats his fill,
Then feeds on contemplation and is still;—
Soft-footed Hare that haunts the moonlit range;
Mate-loving Mole; the Squirrel's airy will
Of storm sagacious and of windy change;
The Beaver on the stream that builds his portal'd grange.
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XII
Full-shap'd, full-cloth'd, and full of life upsprung,Teeming as swarms which Indian shades embower,
Till with their thousand cries the welkin rung;
For thick as motes in sun-light's golden shower
Burst forth Creation in her early hour:
But most on rivers' bank the joyance spread,
And multiplied all motion, will, and power;
The Sea-horse sported on his watery bed;
The Frog beneath the reed rear'd his enquiring head;—
XIII
Anon extending both his arms to swimAmphibious pass'd into his verdant isle;—
The Lizard to the bank; uncouth of limb
Mail'd and caparison'd the King of Nile
On wave or shore tried feats of harmless guile;
Four-footed some, some many-footed roll
Serpentine shapes, and as they creep the while
Unclasp their golden wings, with buoyant soul
Make air their dwelling-place, their crowning end and goal.
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XIV
The Grasshopper, the Bee's melodious wing,The booming Beetle with his evening horn,
Their music-making motions seem to sing,
Like sparks of joyous life; the May-fly born
To die, and never see a second morn,
Yet sporting in the sunset to its close:
Each with bright wings his Maker doth adorn,
And bids him to rejoice; His voice he knows,
And sports till falling eve hath brought him death's repose.
XV
Nations with nations creep the insect race,'Mid Nature's boundaries wall'd, together twine
And interweave their tribes, filling all place;
Each sylvan lodge, each shrub, each pool, or mine,
Swarms with its myriads,—horn'd beeve, fleecy kine,
Or caravans on wing;—wonders Divine,
Strange miniatures; each knows its order'd way
That climbs the stair of being, till they shine
The purple-bright expansion of a day,
Angel-like forms disclose, and pass for aye away.
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XVI
Now mock the big creation,—peacock-plumedWith elephant proboscis, or with mail
Of tortoise-like enamel, when illumed
With sunset hues it folds its filmy sail
Beneath the emblazon'd shield or feather'd tail;
Some Pard-like spotted o'er, or Zebra-lined,
Quivering with trunk elastic: tongue would fail
To speak their aptitudes of form and mind,
And transformations strange according to their kind.
XVII
Now counterfeit the vegetable worldWith frolicsome vagaries as in sport,
Mimic the branch—or flower—or leaflet curl'd;—
Intelligent to form in other sort
The natures, shapes, and hues of Flora's court
Wherein they dwell. The bud—lo,—by degrees
A full-blown flower! in interval as short
Aurelian generations wing the breeze,
And fill the doubtful mead with floral semblances.
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XVIII
With joy and beauty the aerial troopPurple and paint the lea; some hang below,
Others on sunbeams ride with buoyant group
On clouds of airy gladness, to and fro,
Or up and down careering: others glow
Diamond-like or impearl'd, each a wing'd gem;
E'en as the Cistus with its summer show
Puts forth its flowerets like a diadem,
And drops them all at noon around the parent stem.
XIX
To them who trace their tribes from kind to kindHow complicate and deep their harmonies,
Similitudes, gradations undefin'd,
Their changes, symbols, strange analogies,
Where Nature's finger modulates and plies
Whatever stop she pleases;—breathes control,
And of their discords makes sweet melodies,
Inspiring into all one living soul
Of order and of peace that animates the Whole!
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XX
But e'en that spring of springs, that morn of morns,Creation's self, I deem but shadow dim
Of this our new Creation which adorns
The face of earth and Heaven, and Nature's hymn
Faint echo of the song of Seraphim
Which our ears hear not; from its wintry cells
Each Year awakes that Bridal lamp to trim,
And reads to earth the mystic Canticles;
But my dull heart knows not; the soul that in them dwells.
XXI
Nor can we of the creatures deem arightAs perfect from their Maker's Hand they came,
So interwoven are they to our sight
With images of ill; through all their frame
Such laws are inly wrought, though free from blame,
Yet made to glass our passions, rage and lust,
Cunning and pride, stamp'd with our sin and shame,
Creatures that rise from and return to dust,
Yet sanctified to teach the wisdom of the Just.
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XXII
And this sublunar mansion where they dwell,As first it issued from its Maker's hand,
A vision is to man inscrutable;
So is its visage marr'd, and sea and land
Furrow'd with lines of sorrow, and the brand
Of thunders from below or from on high;
Where all of good by the Divine command,
(As night pursues the day along the sky,)
Fellow'd or follow'd is by dark adversity.
XXIII
Yet creatures of our Father are they all,And we in Him may see that they are good,
Good after their own kinds, as to His call
They answer in their places, as endued
With powers and with perfections, or as view'd
In signs and counter-signs of higher things,
As rightly by Omniscience understood;
Something divine to us their study brings,
Wherein the wounded hart may drink at Sion's springs.
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XXIV
Strange are the affinities 'tween earth and Heaven;Star-watching Seers that meted out the skies,
There ranged the animals on vault of even,
Marking them out with Heaven's own burning eyes;
The Lion's range; the Crab as backward hies
The year into itself; the snowy Bear;
Hot summer's Dog; Heaven-climbing Capricorn;
As if man's destinies were mirror'd there,
Making the things of earth of heavenly things declare.
XXV
More than they knew within them did divineNature's own voice of wisdom, on Heaven's sphere
Thus fain to write the Zodiac, and enshrine
The creatures there in starry character.
Thus beasts half-human, half-divine uprear
Their heads, where Nineveh long buried lies,
Like Gods ascending from the earth appear,
And startle these our Christian centuries:
And such by Chebar's banks spoke language of the skies;—
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XXVI
There the Four wingèd Beasts the Throne reveal,In them the mystic Heavens a place have found;
Mix'd creature-shapes, hands, wings, and living wheel.
Thus man on earth is in his nature bound
With beasts that perish, with them walks the ground,
'Mid lusts and appetites of lower things,
Yet looks before and after, inly crown'd
With a Divinity which in him springs,
And blends with doubtful shape th'unearthly eye and wings.
XXVII
Around Mount Sinai's base was Israel taughtThe language of the creatures, which made wise
Their tables and their flocks, and round them brought
All nature, like a school of mysteries,
Meet training of that childhood; open lies
Creation's self their book; but on it thrown
The line of deep distinction, to arise
With adamantine walls as yet unknown,
When their meek Master's crib the Ox and Ass shall own.
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XXVIII
And thus that Lydian Sage in sportive guise,The Æsop of our childhood, gave the tongue
Of wisdom to the beast, brought to our eyes
The characters which to each kind belong,
As varied as the notes of sylvan song:
Thus through each phase of folly and of crime
Rocks and home streams and woodland haunts among
Scatter'd the seeds of wisdom for all time,
Touching deep Nature's chord, mysterious, strange, sublime.
XXIX
But Israel all their kinds divinely ledTo range in order round the Holy Lamb,
Clothed with that sacrifice and inly fed,
The Lamb that is in Heaven. The victim came
Replete with auguries stamped on his frame,
Spotless and patient, not events to hide
Within its entrails, but speak praise or blame
As men within the covenant abide,
Till 'tween the sheep and goats the Shepherd shall divide.
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XXX
But by the door to Noah's ark of woodAll enter'd and were hallow'd; in the sheet
Let down from Heaven all sanctified for good:
With the wild beasts in their own dread retreat
The second Adam walk'd; as it was meet
When He for us and them the burden bore;
And now He sits on high, and 'neath His feet
Beasts of the field are placed as was of yore,
Who to themselves and us shall their lost loves restore.
XXXI
Isis no more is that Egyptian cow,But set apart by our Redeemer's seal,
The victim o'er which shines the Heavenly bow
Encircling, hidden mercies to reveal;—
Our bodies' help, sign of our spirits' weal.
On the meek ass did our Redeemer ride;—
Alas, that to man's mercies such appeal
Should not for pity's self be sanctified!
And more than all the Lamb by gentle Una's side.
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XXXII
The Horse no more the emblem of our pride,Whose neck is clothed with thunder and with war:
On the white Horse the Word of God doth ride;
And with Him on white Horses from afar
Armies of Heaven: then let the battle-car
Be broken, and on earth contentions cease.
The hosts of Heaven are with the Morning Star
That opes the portals of eternal peace,
And from the yoke of pain the creature finds release.
XXXIII
And learn we their affections and their loveTheir Master and their Master's friends to own,
(Ah, that men so would love their God above!)
As ye, light-slumbering dogs. The unclean alone
Without th'eternal City shall be thrown.
O beauteous picture of th'unswerving mind,
By Tigris banks and Eastern shades unknown
The Angel and Tobias onward wind,
The faithful dog is seen numbering their steps behind.
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XXXIV
On speckled snake and toad with jewell'd eyeTerror with beauty sits, they near us dwell,
Dread witnesses, and as they hide and fly
Shoot chilly fears significant, that tell
Of loves that please but bear the keys of Hell.
Yet Faith which finds an Eden in the wild
'Mid harmful things herself unharm'd shall dwell,
To unclean natures shall be reconcil'd,
And on the adder's den shall play the little child.
XXXV
And hence the tale in legendary loreOf lions in their wrath which stand dismay'd
At virgin purity; since they of yore
Crouch'd gazing on the Virgin-Seer that pray'd,
In silence, saw their Maker and obey'd.
And may we read that Babylonian sign
That worldly empires by those beasts pourtray'd
Harm not Thy little ones? for all are Thine,
And for Thy chosen flock work endless good Divine.
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XXXVI
With mountain Chamois grant to walk aloof,And the Hind's feet, still higher yet and higher
From cliff to cliff to pass, shod with the hoof,
The parted hoof of peace,—that can aspire
On slippery heights to walk and yet attire
Its limbs in fleetness. Or if rather mine
Clear streams and haunts of men and village spire,
In pensive rumination to recline,
Meet sacrifice for man, nor 'neath that yoke repine.
XXXVII
Learn we with sheep to know the Shepherd's voice,And knowing to obey; from beasts that bear
Our burden in our Master to rejoice,
And His sweet service, Who our yoke doth share
With us and makes our burden free from care.
Yea, to the keen-eyed serpent is it given
To teach us wisdom; from the dove to share
Breasts iridescent as the summer even;
And from the ant betimes to lay up store in Heaven.
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XXXVIII
And ye, fair maids that weave the silken thread,Think of the worm, and that his winding-sheet
That speaks of Resurrection from the dead,
Sent from his southern skies your eyes to greet.
Think, children, while ye eat the treasured sweet,
Of the Bee's wisdom, when the summers shine,
His social love, his hymning labours fleet;
From age to age he bears the unalter'd sign
That kingdoms are of Heaven and majesty divine.
XXXIX
Yea, meanest things seem most with wisdom rife,With more than their own wisdom are made wise,
In types of resurrection unto life.
What can the worm forecast of after-rise
To angel wings, flower-haunts, and vernal skies?
Or Mole-eyed pioneer that delves the ground
Deem of man's wisdom which about him lies?
What can man know of destinies profound,
Or deem aright of eyes that now his ways surround?
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XL
What miniatures are on the butterfly!The bird of Paradise is on his plume,
Feathers carbuncled o'er with jewelry;
His order'd plumage glittering downs illume.
But why this fading waste of golden bloom?
It is to set forth man, the creeping worm,
And this his shell, the star-encircled gloom,
From whence may issue forth a radiant form;—
Alas, how many die and never pass the storm!
XLI
As on a magic world on you I gaze,Ye insects, wondrous revelation lies
In all your transformations and your ways,
For ye are mark'd as with unnumber'd eyes,
A letter'd hieroglyphic each supplies:
While a mysterious stranger from a thing
That crawls on earth, looks earthward, feeds and dies,
Issues the Angel-plumed that loves the spring;
Or flies of scorpion name, and dragons of the wing.
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XLII
If Wonder leads me through her twilight hallsTo comet after comet, suns afar,
Lost in amazement, near at hand through stalls
Of insect life no less, from spar to spar,
Which one brief noon alone doth make and mar,
Aerial gems, melodious flutterings,
Weavings of airy circlets, each a star
With beauty animate and rainbow wings,
Each in itself a world outshining pride of Kings.
XLIII
The insect scarce-discern'd doth live and move,A creeping speck, a live intelligence,
Self-motion hath, and will, and hate, and love,
Exquisite form, and perfect lineaments,
Yea, light as of the stars, feeling, and sense.
And who shall paint the mansion where it dwells,
The mote—the channel'd range—the order'd fence;—
Of Bee or Wasp the inner citadels,
The hanging storied domes, the subterranean cells?
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XLIV
The Ant—belov'd of wisdom—hath her glades,Her groves by the Ilissus, learnèd stores,
With walks between and academic shades;
The Marmot builds his Babylon,—ranged floors,
Populous streets, and vaulted corridors.
Lo, springs the Beaver's many-timber'd hall,
Nineveh by the waters! Thus outpours
The Fount of wisdom over great and small,
Seen in an insect's cell or Heaven's o'er-arching ball.
XLV
Wise beyond wisdom unto man assign'd“They all are taught of God,” in Him they mould
Their haunts and habitations in their kind;
And shall not they of the celestial fold
Learn of Him their own heavenward clue to hold
Above all reason and our human thought,
In yearnings for that country lost of old,
The saving of our souls Divinely wrought,
In ways that are of God and of His Spirit taught?
320
EVENING.
I
From beasts this day we unto man ascend;As in a city filled with festal throng
Of meaner sort and crowds from end to end,
Should one who wandering there and wondering long
Hath wound his way the motley groups among
His venerable sire himself behold,
By the king's side and in his presence strong,
Sitting above in purple and in gold,
He turns from all the rest in filial love made bold.
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II
So look we now to our first Sire of old;For naught in bird or beast of sight or sound,
Or aught in their pursuits in field or fold,
Nor sylvan scene, nor grove with mountain crown'd,
Nor streams nor seas, nor creature in them found,
Nor stars that in their beauteous order roll,
And contemplations of the skies around,
Nor converse with its kind, the human soul
Can satisfy and fill—its being's end and goal.
III
For neither beast, nor aught of earthly mould,Nor air nor sea with all their companies,
Nor the blue vault adorn'd with stars and gold,
Where sun and moon in brightness walk the skies,
Can comprehend their Maker good and wise;
No voice, no hand intelligent to ply
Their harp responsive to sweet Litanies,
Naught in them to reflect Heaven's gracious eye,
Or be the living Priest of this great Sanctuary.
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IV
For making of the sun and sea and earthOf no forecasting counsel do we read,
Of no deliberation at their birth,
No plan as in the moulding of the seed,
From which so vast a temple should proceed
As to fill earth and Heaven, where God's own Name
Shall be the Light, nor sun, nor moon to need;
So awful, so mysterious is the frame
Rais'd to the throne of God when freed from sin and shame.
V
And therefore as beneath a beauteous veilThe Godhead are disclos'd, as here below
Amid their instruments so poor and frail
Men sit their work designing, whence may grow
Some matter meet for counsel, bent to know
Union of thought on import grave and deep;—
That God His Image may on man bestow,
Dominion o'er this lower world to keep,
On whom may ever rest the Eye that cannot sleep.
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VI
From that mysterious converse deep, Divine,The Temple rises perfect, full, entire,
That God His living Presence there may shrine,
Planting His Breath therein, the undying Fire,
Which on wing'd adorations may aspire
Ever to Heaven; to walk this earthly span,
Yet join'd in union with the Seraph choir,
With wisdom given his Maker's works to scan,
The Image of his God, high-dower'd, high-destin'd man.
VII
But not alone;—the purple bloom of HeavenDoth with the mystic Bridegroom now disclose
The mystic Bride for love and fealty given,
And cleaving to the side from whence she rose;
Presaging that which no division knows,
Marriage in Heaven, afar from sinful shame;
As some frail flower beside another grows
Both on one stem with like though feebler frame,
Or day in waters seen though softer yet the same.
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VIII
O thou Creation's wonder, man's dread soul,All outward nature mighty to combine
To thine own service, govern, awe, controul;—
Light, motion, heat, that triune Fire divine;—
The Shechinah of that material shrine;—
The Fire that in the bush unharming burn'd;—
The undivided Trinity; to shine,
To move, to burn; unknown and undiscern'd,
Save through the outer man to its own purpose turn'd!
IX
And might I speak what is unspeakable,When mind doth know itself, and knowing love,
A Trinity divine in man may dwell;—
Knowledge, and Love, and Mind; which loving knows,
And knowing loves itself; till they disclose
The Three in One, which as the soul doth prove
Itself on its own centre finds repose;—
Life and light lost in everlasting love;
For God Himself is Love, the Triune God above.
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X
Or say we rather 'twas in moral storeOf that transcendant flower which in him lay,
Wisdom to know; Devotion to adore;
Justice to walk along His sacred way?
These o'er the creatures hold imperial sway,
Semblance of God, with Godhead thus combined
Above the beasts; to love, discern, and pray;
Pure effluence in form organic shrined,
The impress here below of the Eternal Mind.
XI
Marvels divine veil'd from the outer sense,Which in man's Sire primeval hidden lie,
Surrounded with the robe of innocence,
The hidden vest of immortality,
With superadded grace and virtues high!
The limner thus some mould distinctive rears,
Then adds each beauteous light and varied dye.
Image Divine the inmost spirit bears,
While in the form of man the breathing earth appears.
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XII
Or Reason, Will, and Memory, three in one;Or Body, Soul, and Spirit; where our God
'Mid these our low creations may enthrone
His Presence. Fill'd with Heaven a living clod,
Crown'd with dominion on the earth he trod,
Beatitude around him, while as yet
He needed not, nor knew the chastening rod,
The Sun of this new world, where Heaven was met
With earth—alas, too soon in tearful night to set,—
XIII
And pillars of the world with him bring down,Lower and lower falling; far extends
Into eternity of worlds unknown
The shadow of his ruin, far descends,
Lower and lower falling, that Heaven bends
Beneath the weight, whose ruin terrible
Like mountain upon mountain all things blends,
Lower and lower falling—down to Hell:—
Meet cause for God Himself to come with man to dwell.
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XIV
Such Image of Himself in man belowGod hath beholding lov'd, and loving bless'd;
Yea, though thus helpless, fallen, yet e'en now,
Such tenderness on the maternal breast
For babes brought forth in pain hath God impress'd;
While all things onward to corruption run,
Such love is of all loves first, purest, best.
Where'er the semblance of the Three in One,
There concord is and peace and blissful union.
XV
Awful that Image still its ruin rears,—The soul of man, O wondrous mystery!
The light or darkness at her will appears;
She hath the power to choose, for she is free;
She is the Maker of her destiny.
As bodiless creations of the brain
She hath the power to clothe with form, and see,
In painting, sculpture, or poetic strain:—
They come forth at her voice, and at her voice remain.
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XVI
In its Creator's semblance given to be,The soul itself hath a creative dower,
Of which with all its charms sweet Poetry
Is but the beauteous semblance, Heaven-born power
To fashion, and set forth for their short hour
Its visionary shapings: thence they spring,
And shine, and please, and pass,—a rainbow shower;
Power to give form and character and wing,
Creating out of naught a never-dying thing.
XVII
The soul the light or darkness, as she moves,Blends with herself, transmuting unaware,
Gives a solidity to that she loves,
And on it walks as on a crystal stair;
Or beats therewith the bodiless light air
As with substantial wings; or sinks to Hell
Imbruted and incarcerate; her snare
Makes in herself, her chain, and prison cell,
Part of her very self, wherein she needs must dwell.
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XVIII
Lodged in herself she dwells, a star apart,'Mid complicate and fond anxieties,
Which she around her weaves from her own heart;
Like a lone spider which in centre lies
Of self-wrought and sun-gilded canopies;
Where should aught haply touch the point extreme,
Instantly shakes the whole; she hurried flies;
The gossamer pavilion and the gleam
One little breath of air shall hurry down the stream.
XIX
That portraiture so fair, with running stainsAnd colours false degenerate more and more,
Upon man's ruin'd offspring scarce remains;
As if some pencil foul from Lethe's shore
Or dipp'd in Stygian flames had dash'd it o'er;
So was the visage marr'd of dying man,
Spoil'd of his righteous robe and ruin'd sore,
Lying in death; till that Samaritan
Laid on his pitying beast; and then our health began.
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XX
O'er creatures here below which God hath madeStamp'd sovereignty man bears; but from him they
Start off aloof, indignant or afraid;
In his own soul couch other beasts of prey,
And animals unclean, born to obey,
Passions and strong affections; some disdain,
Some chafe unwilling, or reject his sway;
Through suffering he his kingdom must regain;
The Cross his sceptre make;—to serve God is to reign.
XXI
For not alone upon the unclean Swine,And Lion now of peaceful mien no more,
And Serpents which about our feet may shine;—
Not only on the fowls of Heaven, which o'er
The mountain tops or 'mid the clouds may soar;—
Not only o'er the gliding tribes that love
The watery deep below and silent shore,
Man hath dominion lost given from above,
Which bear the unwilling yoke or from him heedless rove:—
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XXII
O'er Rage and Lust, those unclean beasts within,The serpent of deceitful thoughts that creep,
Or lofty-wing'd imaginings, that win
A place among the clouds or o'er the steep,
Or speculations such as love the deep
Of contemplation and in silence dwell,
The Soul doth now her lost dominion weep;
For she hath lost that crown unspeakable,
The Image of her God which was that empire's spell.
XXIII
But He who closed and oped the Lion's maw,To spare or slay according to His Word;—
Who on the black-wing'd raven laid His law,
When at Mount Horeb's cave His summons heard,
And morn and evening came the obedient bird;—
Who from the Galilean sea to shore
With silver tongue the finny inmate stirr'd;
The Son of Man that sceptre shall restore,
And o'er the world within that kingdom as of yore.
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XXIV
As when some sculptor in the plastic clayHath wrought a beauteous image, frail though fair,
Which marr'd by spoiler rude in ruin lay,
And then that loss in marble doth repair;
Thus, heavenly things with earthly to compare,
On this same hallow'd day, this noon's decline,
God hath remade the object of His care,
Set in dominion o'er His works to shine,
The Image of Himself, though human yet divine.
XXV
When He Who launch'd in space the shining spheres,Himself hung on the Tree, and for us died,
Moulding anew the never-failing years;
And in that slumber from His wounded side
Issued in life the Everlasting Bride,
“The Mother of all living,” from His Blood,
Bone of His bone, beneath His shade to hide;
Then as around the Cross all nature stood,
God look'd upon that Day and call'd it very Good.
333
XXVI
Then 'gan Creation in her second spring,Put off her filthy garments from the dead,
And clothed with change of raiment, plumed her wing,
With everlasting joy upon her head;
In the earth-roaming creatures then were read
Emblems and embryos, blood-wash'd and shriven,
Glistening with dews, in which around were shed
Reflections of the things that are in Heaven;
And to unlock their ways the keys of David given.
XXVII
Then was again, when our New Birth began,The Triune God in awful converse known,
The Father's Voice,—the Dove—the Son of Man
Issuing from Jordan's wave; on Tabor's throne
The Father's Voice—the Cloud—the Face that shone;—
On Golgotha's mysterious Sacrifice,
Consenting and approving, Three in One;
For man thrice dead, regenerated thrice;
So great the birth, the fall, the ransom and the price.
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XXVIII
And man that lost dominion given in vain,In semblance of the awful Trinity,
Through body, soul, and spirit shall regain
Over the creature worlds which in us lie,
Hallow'd anew to mutual harmony;
As when the ethereal Light diffused around
Blends all in one the sky, the earth, and sea,
Their mirror in the gazing eye is found;
There is no strength but where that threefold cord is bound.
XXIX
Union alone is peace and sacred rest,When all to One return, for God is One;
The Triune Godhead on the soul impress'd
In our Redemption; by the Incarnate Son
Renewing in that kingdom here begun;—
Taking our ills to give us His own good;
Within restoring peaceful union;—
The Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood,
When dove-like on the wave the hallow'd wing shall brood.
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XXX
Made Son of Man to make us sons of God;Incarnate made that we might be Divine;
Our destin'd way of death for us He trod;
Our Great High-Priest, in His own hallow'd shrine
Oblation made for us (O love benign!)
What He from us receiv'd;—for us to strive
With our great enemy;—Himself resign
In death for us, that we in Him might live;
We our own death to Him, He us His life doth give.
XXXI
That we might be made rich, Himself made poor;Troubled for us, that we His peace might win;
An outcast made, that we might find the door;
Our leprosy took on Him and our sin,
Not to retain but heal, to clothe within
With innocence and health; His wounded Side
Opening for us, that we might enter in,
As to an Ark of refuge, there to hide,
Hide from our sinful selves and in His love abide.
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XXXII
Our death in life, our life in death, our BreathIn that new Eden of the hidden skies,
Where by those fiery cherubims of death
He led the Thief, unseen by mortal eyes,
By living streams of that new Paradise.
His Bride unclean and sinful He regains
By taking her uncleanness; as He dies
Pouring His vital Blood into her veins,
Whereby in dying life in her His Spirit reigns.
XXXIII
Rightly thyself to know, thyself to scan,This is to know thy God; though foul-defaced
His Image still is in thee, wretched man;
He pleadeth still within thee, though displaced
By meaner things. His Finger there hath traced
Again the lines of that creative Love;
And with the filial robe hath inly graced;
O let thy tears like a new Baptism prove
Whereon again may brood the Spirit from above.
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XXXIV
The eye which in its mirror takes the seaThe mountains and the wood, the stream and plain,
And the broad starry vault's immensity,
Cannot behold itself; e'en thus in vain
The soul would know its image, till it gain
The mirror of God's truth; and as it learns
What it hath been, and what may now remain,
What it should be, cleanses as it discerns,
Shrining that crystal fire which in its spirit burns.
XXXV
When the inner man the outward doth command,When God's own Image hath subdued man's pride,
And sits self-mastery on the bridling hand,
Then, as the clouds which the sun's light would hide
Are by his light transform'd and glorified,
The Word within the body shall transmute
To His own service, all things on each side
To one high object shall responsive suit,
As melodies that dwell in the obedient lute.
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XXXVI
But men forget in earth's oblivious dreamThis is a place of exile, not reward,
And therefore envious nature oft may seem
Step-dame—not nursing mother;—so much marr'd
Of all her fair proportions, so debarr'd
Of all substantial good or peaceful rest;
Ill-nurtured, ill-affianced, and ill-starr'd,
The universal plaint; though once thrice bless'd,
A mirror of the change that marks the human breast.
XXXVII
When first in Christ the world's foundation stoodAs all the creatures from His hand proceed
God saw them in the Son, and call'd them good;
E'en so to us are they all good indeed
As we in Christ behold them; in them read
The language of His love who for us died;
Seen in the sun fair is each flower and weed,
Without him they in formless dark abide;
All things in Thee are good, and naught is good beside.
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XXXVIII
In all things seen around 'tis Thou aloneMeet end and object to our thoughts dost prove,
Naught else but Thou art worthy to be known;
No ways are good but end in Thee above;
No motions good but those which Thou dost move;
No thoughts but those alone by Thee inspired;
Nothing but Thou art worthy of our love;
Nothing but Thou in all to be admired;
Nothing but Thou alone by soul of man desired.
XXXIX
The Sixth Day now is verging to its end,The Sixth Age of the world; the mountain height
Looks bright, but shadows on the earth descend;
That word Divine bears onward in its might,
“Increase and multiply,” as heard aright
Of Christ and of His Church in mystery,
Sowing the desert world with orient light,
And bringing forth all hidden harmony;
Dark night,—or evening clear,—we know not what shall be.
| The Seven Days, or the Old and New Creation | |